European Union Member States: Full List and Common Misconceptions

European Union member states number twenty-seven as of 2026. The list has been stable since 31 January 2020, when the United Kingdom formally left the bloc through Brexit. No new country has joined since Croatia became the twenty-eighth member on 1 July 2013, and Brexit took the count back to twenty-seven.

A recurring source of confusion is the difference between Europe the continent, the European Union (a political and economic union of 27 states), the Schengen Area (a passport-free zone), the Eurozone (the currency union), the European Economic Area (which extends the EU single market to three additional states), and the Council of Europe (a separate 46-member organisation focused on human rights and the rule of law). These are overlapping but distinct memberships.

Germany and Poland are EU member states. Belarus and Switzerland are not, despite being European countries.

The 27 EU Member States

The current EU member states, in alphabetical order, with their year of accession.

Founding Members

Six countries founded what would become the European Union, by signing the 1951 Treaty of Paris that established the European Coal and Steel Community and then the 1957 Treaties of Rome that established the European Economic Community and Euratom. These founding members are Belgium, France, Germany (then West Germany), Italy, Luxembourg and the Netherlands. The Treaties of Rome came into force on 1 January 1958.

The European Union as a single legal entity was established by the Treaty of Maastricht, signed in 1992 and in force from 1 November 1993. The 1958 founding date refers to the predecessor European Communities, which were merged into the EU.

Enlargement Waves

The EU has gone through several rounds of enlargement.

• 1973: Denmark, Ireland, United Kingdom (UK left in 2020)
• 1981: Greece
• 1986: Portugal, Spain
• 1995: Austria, Finland, Sweden
• 2004: Cyprus, Czechia, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia (the big bang enlargement)
• 2007: Bulgaria, Romania
• 2013: Croatia

The 2004 enlargement was the single largest, adding ten countries and ending the post-Cold War division of Europe in institutional terms.

Countries That Are NOT EU Members

Several European countries are not in the EU.

Switzerland

Switzerland is not an EU member state. It has rejected EU membership in successive referendums. Switzerland is part of the European Free Trade Association (EFTA), the Schengen Area and has a network of bilateral agreements with the EU. But it is not a member of the European Union, the European Economic Area, or the Eurozone.

Belarus

Belarus is not an EU member state and has never been a candidate. Belarus is geographically European but politically remains closely aligned with Russia.

Norway and Iceland

Norway is not an EU member; it has rejected membership in two referendums (1972 and 1994). Iceland is not an EU member either. Both countries are part of the European Economic Area through EFTA, which gives them access to the EU single market without being EU members.

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom left the EU on 31 January 2020 through Brexit, after a referendum in June 2016. The UK is no longer part of the EU, the EU customs union, the single market or the Schengen Area, though it remains in the Council of Europe.

Other Non-Members

Russia, Ukraine, Moldova, Georgia, Turkey, Serbia, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Andorra, Liechtenstein, Monaco, San Marino and Vatican City are all in Europe but not EU members. Several are candidate countries.

Candidate Countries

As of the current accession cycle, the recognised EU candidate countries are: Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, Moldova, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia, Türkiye and Ukraine. Kosovo is a potential candidate. The pace of accession varies dramatically from one candidate to another, with negotiations affected by chapters opened, rule-of-law benchmarks and member state vetoes.

Eurozone, Schengen and EEA

The 27 EU member states are not all in the same internal sub-arrangements.

Eurozone (Euro Currency Area)

Twenty EU members use the euro as of 2026. Croatia adopted the euro on 1 January 2023, becoming the twentieth Eurozone member. Bulgaria adopted the euro on 1 January 2026, becoming the twenty-first member. Some sources still cite twenty; the latest count is twenty-one.

EU members not in the Eurozone include Denmark (with a permanent opt-out), Czechia, Hungary, Poland, Romania and Sweden. These countries are legally committed to adopting the euro eventually (except Denmark) but have not met the convergence criteria or have chosen to delay.

Schengen Area

The Schengen Area allows passport-free travel across twenty-nine European countries. Schengen membership overlaps with but is not identical to EU membership. Croatia joined Schengen in January 2023; Bulgaria and Romania joined fully (including land borders) on 31 March 2024. Cyprus and Ireland are EU members but not full Schengen members. Switzerland, Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein are non-EU Schengen members.

European Economic Area (EEA)

The EEA extends the EU single market to three non-EU countries: Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway. Switzerland is not part of the EEA but has parallel bilateral access through sectoral treaties.

EU and Council of Europe: Distinct Institutions

The Council of Europe (CoE) is a separate organisation with 46 member states as of 2026 (Russia was expelled in March 2022). The Council of Europe administers the European Convention on Human Rights and the European Court of Human Rights, both of which are not EU institutions. Confusing the two is one of the most common errors in writing about European institutions. The Council of Europe is older (founded 1949) and broader (covers most of Europe except Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan and Vatican City). The European Union is the deeper political and economic union of 27 states.

FAQs

How many member states does the European Union have in 2026?

The European Union has 27 member states as of 2026, unchanged since the United Kingdom left on 31 January 2020.

Is Switzerland a member of the European Union?

No. Switzerland is not an EU member. It is in the European Free Trade Association and Schengen Area, with bilateral agreements with the EU, but it is not part of the European Union.

Is Belarus part of the European Union?

No. Belarus is geographically in Europe but is not an EU member and is not a candidate country.

Is the United Kingdom still in the EU?

No. The United Kingdom formally left the EU on 31 January 2020 following the Brexit referendum.

When did the largest EU enlargement happen?

The largest enlargement was on 1 May 2004, when ten countries joined: Cyprus, Czechia, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia.

Which is the newest EU member state?

Croatia, which joined on 1 July 2013. No country has joined since.

Are all EU countries in the Eurozone?

No. Twenty-one of the 27 EU member states use the euro as of 2026, following Bulgaria’s adoption on 1 January 2026. Six member states (Denmark, Czechia, Hungary, Poland, Romania and Sweden) do not use the euro.

What is the difference between the EU and the Council of Europe?

The European Union is a political and economic union of 27 states with shared institutions, laws and policies. The Council of Europe is a separate organisation of 46 states focused on human rights and the rule of law, administering the European Convention on Human Rights. The two institutions are often confused but are entirely distinct.

Who Speaks for the EU: The Three Presidencies

Just as the Union is often confused with the Council of Europe, its top offices are routinely mixed up — and the EU has not one president but several, each leading a different institution. The most prominent is the President of the European Commission, who heads the EU’s executive arm: the Commission proposes legislation, manages the common budget and negotiates trade deals on behalf of all member states. Ursula von der Leyen, a former German defence minister, has held this office since 2019 and is the figure most people picture when they think of “the EU”, though her title is Commission President, not President of the EU.

Alongside her sit two other presidencies. The President of the European Council chairs the summits of the 27 national heads of state and government, setting the bloc’s broad political direction without running day-to-day administration. The President of the European Parliament presides over the directly elected legislature in Strasbourg and Brussels, which shares law-making and budget powers with the Council. A rotating six-month Presidency of the Council of the European Union, held in turn by a member state, steers ministerial meetings — a fourth, separate role often muddled with the first three.

Keeping these offices straight matters because national leaders and EU office-holders are easily conflated. France, for instance, is a presidential republic where the President is head of state and the Prime Minister heads the government — so a French head of state is a President, never a Prime Minister, just as the head of the EU’s executive is a Commission President, not a head of state at all.